Studying history at school, the use of the modifiers “pre” and “post” were common. Pre-war, post-war etc.

Wars tend to form bookmarks, a context on the great timeline. We think of the world around the wars, such is their socio-political and historical impact.

The other day I used the phrase “pre-internet" in conversation and instantly felt ancient. The world before the web seems like a quaint, antiquated time.

If you remember those years you’re like the last of the steam-powered trains, a marvel in your day, but the brave new world renders you obsolete, a reminder of a bygone era now doomed to rust and recycling, only to be recalled in the twinkle of nostalgia’s eye.

But it also got me thinking of how we’d describe these times we live in now.

It would be great but rather sad to think of them as Post-Bowie, Post-Prince or Post-Cohen, but upon looking at the past few years, I have a feeling we’ll be referring to them very differently than that.

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Donald Trump’s latest insidious health care “reform”, a direct and vicious attack on the poor and needy, with Theresa May seeming intent on following his example, would lead me to believe these are the Post-Stable years. Post-Compassion. Post-Sanity.

I say the latter because those who backed them, their beliefs and policies, will soon realise they were truly, thoroughly duped.

It’s going to seem tragically quaint in the next decade to hear those Make America Great Again and Make Britain Strong Again sound bites and wonder just how in the hell it all came to pass, how they succeeded.

For a man so clearly unfit for the job of POTUS, he’s still there, farting out his inanities on television and social media, putting his foot in it with every world leader he encounters, bullying and belittling the media who don’t love him, even having a pop at Meryl Streep.

Just bumbling along and making it up as he goes, reneging on promises and policies and leading America ever closer to conflict and financial ruin.

He’ll always come out of it well, however, his type always do.

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Born with a silver ladle in his fat gob, knowing his entire life that no matter what happens, he can always fall ass backwards into a safety net of immense wealth and privilege, he has achieved that great American ambition fathers tell their kids “Son, one day you might grow up to be President”.

He has become President, but growing up? I’m not so sure. He appears to have grown up right until his frat boy years, then stayed in a permanent state of misogynistic buffoon.

In another life, on another series of The Apprentice, he’d fire the likes of himself for being incompetent.

Or promote himself to CEO of some vast conglomerate of avarice, with only a collection of other white old men on it’s board of governors. Oh wait, he’s doing that now, isn’t he?

His campaign, much like May’s and indeed the main parties here in Northern Ireland, relied on the “Don’t Vote For Them” tactic, rather than a “Vote For Me”.

Fear and threat over any real sense of positivity or hope. Divide and conquer rather than unite and prosper.

But, like I said, they don’t come to power by themselves. We vote for that shower. And we will be voting again soon.

Regardless of who you back, take a really long hard look at what you’re implementing by doing so. I’m looking beyond the personalities at the top.

In the UK, the wave of anti-Corbyn sentiment is ludicrous. OK, you don’t have to like him as a person, you may not feel he is a strong enough figure as leader, but his party is the bigger picture. Leaders come and go, the party are the ones running the show.

I can’t find anything admirable or even remotely likeable about May or, in fact, the Conservatives, but my jury is out on Corbyn. I think he’s principled and honest and passionate, but his stance on a few issues has called my opinion into question of late.

My main concern in the UK, because it will affect us immediately, is the NHS. If we lose that, if we accept its dismantling and privatisation, we will get ever closer to being the 51st state of America.

Ask any American just how expensive the healthcare system/medical insurance is in America. It’s frightening. And we could be getting first-hand experience of it soon enough. We’ll be the Post-Care generation.